Prejudice is “a prejudgment, a conviction, reached beforehand, and shaped by preconceived ideas” (Baird pg 21). Most of the time it is a negative feeling of contempt towards people who are different than oneself. Prejudice is a recurring theme in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Set in Macomb, Alabama in 1935, the novel is told from the point of view of a little girl named Scout. Harper Lee uses the voice of Scout to narrate the events that unfold in the town one summer: the trial of Tom Robinson. Robinson is wrongly accused of raping a white girl named Mayella Ewell.
Ever since the beginning of our country, prejudice has been in existence. No matter where you go, you will come into contact with some form of prejudice. Prejudice can be as small as making a generalization against a group of people or in some cases it can lead to discrimination and/or making hate speech. Discrimination can then lead to something as severe as the lynching of a black man, the massacre of Native Americans, and other violent actions against certain groups of individuals. Even though prejudice is not as common in our society as it was in the early 1900’s, it still exists today. “Without a doubt the degree of oppression and discrimination has abated… However, significant discriminatory practices and policies still exist” (Alexander 3). In this essay I will talk about the sources and effects of prejudice, and ways we can start to overcome it. There are many sources of prejudice. Some of those sources include our upbringing, feeling superior to others, and the media.
One of the most important, and hard to overcome, cause of prejudice is our upbringing. Generally, prejudice is passed down from parent to children. “A child might subconsciously pick up beliefs about minorities from his or her parent because the child identifies with them” (Baird 119). Parents are one of the main contributors of prejudice in
young children. Children spend a great portion of their childhood at home with their parents. They are more than likely to pick their parent’s attitudes and beliefs about others. Whenever a parent tells a child not to interact with people of a certain kind, that parent is teaching his/her child to become prejudiced. “Children brought up in a rejective home, exposed to ready-made prejudices will scarcely be able to develop a trustful or affiliative outlook upon social relationships”(Baird 33). Children become influenced by what they see the people around them doing, thinking, or saying.
Furthermore, our parents are the main contributors to our social education. They teach us how to interact with other people in social environments. In Lee’s novel, Scout’s father teaches her and her brother, Jem, that it is wrong to judge others based on outside appearances. He teaches them all they need to know about life with memorable quotes. One of my favorite quotes from the novel is when Atticus says to his children, “There’s something in this world that makes men lose their heads- they couldn’t be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins. They’re ugly, but those are the facts of life” (Lee 233). Atticus tries his best to set a good example for his kids. He becomes a lawyer for Tom Robinson, despite the fact that he becomes a target for hate crimes. He does what he believes is right no matter what others think of him. “Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets” (Lee 53). He doesn’t preach one thing and do something totally different. Yet as a society, we tend to hold on to the views of our predecessors, despite the changing times. “Attitudes from the past are still relevant, operating in present society and reflective in current policy areas” (Alexander pg 16). Another reason for prejudice in our society is feelings of superiority. Superiority is feeling that one surpasses another in rank or quality (superior). Many people feel that they are superior to others because of their economic status or beliefs. For example, in To Kill a Mockingbird, the Ewell family is looked down upon by the whole town because they are very poor. They are called white trash by even the youngest children of the town. “Every town the size of Macomb had families like the Ewells. No economic fluctuations changed their status” (Lee 181). Also, prejudice resulting from economic status is proven when Scout’s Aunt Alexandra forbids s her from playing with this little kid called Walter Cunningham, because Walter’s family is so poor that “he didn’t have any lunch today nor would he have any tomorrow or the next day” (Lee 26). Alexandra simply tells Scout, “There is no doubt in my mind that they are good folks. They are not our kind of folks” (Lee 236). These words are “a tendency to protect the genetic integrity of one’s own group. These kinds of words also lead to feelings of prejudice against people who are not as fortunate as others.
Furthermore, the media also encourages prejudice. They tend to blow things out of proportion. For example, after Hurricane Katrina, the media was focusing on how the hardest hit people were African-Americans. Instead of telling us as a society that we should come together to help those whose lives had been destroyed, the media seemed encourage conflict between whites and blacks. “… Politicians, sections of the media, and so on, are guilty of appealing to prejudices against minority groups to further their own ambitions” (Stevens). It seems as if they play the race card a lot. The media is our main source of information. It provides entertainment while also providing us with information. The media sets the agenda for which problems we should focus on in our society. So if the media provides us with prejudiced information, it stands to reason that it will also be an effect of our prejudiced beliefs.
Consequently, violence is one of the prevalent effects of prejudice. For example in “Dallas, Texas on October 26three men ran up to two men eating in a park and began beating them. During the attack, the assailants called the victims ‘queers’ and ‘s’. One of the victims, who was of Asian descent, was called anti-Asian slurs. After the beating, the perpetrators stood the victims against a wall and shot them execution style, killing one of the men and wounding the other” (Baird 9). This is one of the most severe cases of prejudice against other individuals. Or prejudice can also cause the death of an innocent man, as was shown in Harper Lee’s novel, when Tom Robinson was proven guilty for supposedly raping a woman, which then led to his death. In some other cases, prejudice can be as small as talking about the skin color of a person or saying something that might seem insignificant like calling somebody fat or saying women are inferior to men. Prejudice can also destroy relationships between people. For example, if a man believes that he is superior to women, that man is more than likely to have an unsuccessful relationship with a woman. Another effect of prejudice is that the individuals that have been prejudiced against develop low self-esteem. They might feel like they are inferior to the other race. As Tom Robinson says, “Mr. Finch, if you was a er like me then, then you’d be scared too” (Lee 207). These kinds of prejudices lead to the destruction of communities. That is why we as a society should come together in preventing prejudices from destroying our society.
The first step towards overcoming prejudice is “acknowledge its existence, whenever it does exist” (Baird 26). People tend to think that prejudice does not exist. They believe that by ignoring the problem, it will eventually go away on its own. In fact if we ignore the facts of prejudice it will only grow stronger-yielding to hatred- and more widespread. The second step is work together as a community in getting rid of prejudice. We should start with our children; because it easier to teach them not to be prejudiced, then to stop an adult from being prejudiced
On the whole, instead of contributing to the prevalence of prejudice, we should try be the stopping force. If prejudice becomes widespread in a community, it will more than likely contribute to the destruction of that community.
Prejudice is “a prejudgment, a conviction, reached beforehand, and shaped by preconceived ideas” (Baird pg 21). Most of the time it is a negative feeling of contempt towards people who are different than oneself. Prejudice is a recurring theme in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Set in Macomb, Alabama in 1935, the novel is told from the point of view of a little girl named Scout. Harper Lee uses the voice of Scout to narrate the events that unfold in the town one summer: (DELETE SEMICOLON, ADD "IN.") the trial of Tom Robinson. Robinson is wrongly accused of raping a white girl named Mayella Ewell.
SEPARATE PARAGRAPHS BY SKIPPING A LINE OR INDENTING.
Ever since the beginning of our country, prejudice has been in existence. (PREJUDICE STARTED WELL BEFORE THE "beginning of our country." IT OCCURS WHENEVER PEOPLE SEPARATE OTHERS INTO "US" AND "THEM.") No matter where you go, you will come into contact with some form of prejudice. Prejudice can be as small as making a generalization against a group of people (COMMA) or in some cases (COMMA) it can lead to discrimination and/or making hate speech. Discrimination can then (DELETE "THEN" FOR CONCISENESS.) lead to something as severe as the lynching of a black man, the massacre of Native Americans, and other violent actions against certain groups of individuals.
INDICATE CHANGE OF IDEAS, PLACE, PERSON OR TIME BY STARTING NEW PARAGRAPH.
Even though prejudice is not as common in our society as it was in the early 1900’s, it still exists today. “Without a doubt the degree of oppression and discrimination has abated… (TO INDICATE END OF SENTENCE, ELLIPSIS IS FOLLOWED BY A PERIOD [....].) However, significant discriminatory practices and policies still exist” (Alexander 3). In this essay (COMMA) I will talk about the sources and effects of prejudice, (DELETE COMMA) and ways we can start to overcome it. There are many sources of prejudice. Some of those sources include our upbringing, feeling superior to others, and the media.
One of the most important, and hard to overcome, cause(S) of prejudice is our upbringing. Generally, prejudice is passed down from parent(S) to children. “A child might subconsciously pick up beliefs about minorities from his or her parent because the child identifies with them” (Baird 119). ("PARENT" AND THEM DO NOT MATCH IN TERMS OF PERSON. HOWEVER, IF THIS IS AN ACCURATE QUOTE, DO NOT CHANGE.) Parents are one of the main contributors of prejudice in
young children. Children spend a great portion of their childhood at home with their parents. They are more than (DELETE "MORE THAN.") likely to pick their parent’s attitudes and beliefs about others. Whenever a parent tells a child not to interact with people of a certain kind, that parent is teaching his/her child to become prejudiced. “Children brought up in a rejective home, exposed to ready-made prejudices will scarcely be able to develop a trustful or affiliative outlook upon social relationships”(Baird 33). Children become influenced by what they see the people around them doing, thinking, or saying.
Furthermore, our parents are the main contributors to our social education. They teach us how to interact with other people in social environments. In Lee’s novel, Scout’s father teaches her and her brother, Jem, that it is wrong to judge others based on outside appearances. He teaches them all they need to know about life with memorable quotes. One of my favorite quotes from the novel is when Atticus says to his children, “There’s something in this world that makes men lose their heads- they couldn’t be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins. They’re ugly, but those are the facts of life” (Lee 233). (WITH A QUOTE THIS LONG, YOU MIGHT WANT TO SET IT APART WITH A SEPARATE INDENTED PARAGRAPH.) Atticus tries his best to set a good example for his kids. He becomes a lawyer for Tom Robinson, despite the fact that he becomes a target for hate crimes. He does what he believes is right no matter what others think of him. “Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets” (Lee 53). He doesn’t preach one thing and do something totally different.
Yet (DELETE "YET.") as a society, we tend to hold on to the views of our predecessors, despite the changing times. “Attitudes from the past are still relevant, operating in present society and reflective in current policy areas” (Alexander pg 16).
Another reason for prejudice in our society is feelings of superiority. Superiority is feeling that one surpasses another in rank or quality (superior). Many people feel that they are superior to others because of their economic status or beliefs. For example, in To Kill a Mockingbird, the Ewell family is looked down upon by the whole town (COMMA) because they are very poor. They are called white trash by even the youngest children of the town. “Every town the size of Macomb had families like the Ewells. No economic fluctuations changed their status” (Lee 181). Also, prejudice resulting from economic status is proven when Scout’s Aunt Alexandra forbids her from playing with this little kid called Walter Cunningham, because Walter’s family is so poor that “he didn’t have any lunch today nor would he have any tomorrow or the next day” (Lee 26). Alexandra simply tells Scout, “There is no doubt in my mind that they are good folks. They are not our kind of folks” (Lee 236).
These words are “a tendency to protect the genetic integrity of one’s own group. These kinds of words also lead to feelings of prejudice against people who are not as fortunate as others. (WHERE DOES QUOTE END? SOURCE?) Furthermore, the media also encourages prejudice. They tend to blow things out of proportion. For example, after Hurricane Katrina, the media was focusing on how the hardest hit people were African-Americans. Instead of telling us as a society that we should come together to help those whose lives had been destroyed, the media seemed encourage conflict between whites and blacks. “… Politicians, sections of the media, and so on, are guilty of appealing to prejudices against minority groups to further their own ambitions” (Stevens). It seems as if they play the race card a lot. The media is our main source of information. It provides entertainment while also providing us with information. The media sets the agenda for which (AWKWARD) problems we should focus on in our society. So if the media provides us with prejudiced information, it stands to reason that it will also be ("HAVE") an effect of our prejudiced beliefs.
Consequently, violence is one of the prevalent effects of prejudice. (IS VIOLENCE A CONSEQUENCE OF THE INFORMATION FROM THE MEDIA, OR IS IT THE MOST EXTREME WAY OF EXPRESSING PREJUDICE?) For example in “Dallas, Texas on October 26 (COMMA?) three men ran up to two men eating in a park and began beating them. During the attack, the assailants called the victims ‘queers’ and ‘s’. One of the victims, who was of Asian descent, was called anti-Asian slurs. After the beating, the perpetrators stood the victims against a wall and shot them execution style, killing one of the men and wounding the other” (Baird 9). (WITH THIS LENGTH, YOU MIGHT WANT TO SET THIS QUOTE APART IN A SEPARATE PARAGRAPH TOO.) This is one of the most severe cases of prejudice against other individuals. Or (DELETE "OR.") prejudice can also cause the death of an innocent man, (WEREN'T THE OTHER TWO MEN INNOCENT?) as was shown in Harper Lee’s novel, when Tom Robinson was proven guilty for supposedly raping a woman, which then (DELETE "THEN" TO BE MORE CONCISE.)led to his death.
In some other cases, prejudice can be as small as talking about the skin color of a person or saying something that might seem insignificant like calling somebody fat or saying women are inferior to men. Prejudice can also destroy relationships between people. For example, if a man believes that he is superior to women, that man is more than likely to have an unsuccessful relationship with a woman.
Another effect of prejudice is that the individuals that have been prejudiced against develop low self-esteem. They might feel like they are inferior to the other race. As Tom Robinson says, “Mr. Finch, if you was a er like me then, then you’d be scared too” (Lee 207). These kinds of prejudices lead to the destruction of communities. That is why we as a society should come together in preventing prejudices from destroying our society.
The first step towards overcoming prejudice is “acknowledge its existence, whenever it does exist” (Baird 26). People tend to think that prejudice does not exist. They believe that by ignoring the problem (TO IGNORE A PROBLEM, YOU NEED TO BE AWARE THAT IT EXISTS.), it will eventually go away on its own. In fact (DELETE "IN FACT.") if we ignore the facts of prejudice it will only grow stronger — yielding to hatred — and ("BECOME") more widespread.
The second step is work together as a community in getting rid of prejudice. We should start with our children; because it easier to teach them not to be prejudiced, then to stop an adult from being prejudiced. On the whole, instead of contributing to the prevalence of prejudice, we should try be the stopping force. If prejudice becomes widespread in a community, it will more than likely contribute to the destruction of that community.
THESE SOURCES MIGHT HELP YOU WITH YOUR QUOTING:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/01/
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/QuotingSources.html
http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/pdf/paraquo.pdf
http://www.essortment.com/family/howquotesource_sdeu.htm
You also might want to review your comma rules.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_comma.html
Common writing errors include excessive use of "then" and/or "in fact." Concise material is easier to read than material that is very wordy.
To make sure that titles are italicized or underlined, begin title with an I or U within brackets (< and >) and end title with brackets that precedes the same letter with a slash (/).
In the future, if nobody is available to proofread your work, you can do this yourself. After writing your material, put it aside for a day — at least several hours. (This breaks mental sets you might have that keep you from noticing problems.) Then read it aloud as if you were reading someone else's work. (Reading aloud slows down your reading, so you are less likely to skip over problems.)
If your reading goes smoothly, that is fine. However, wherever you "stumble" in your reading, other persons are likely to have a problem in reading your material. Those "stumbles" indicate areas that need revising.
Once you have made your revisions, repeat the process above. Good papers often require many drafts.
I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.
thank you very much. can you look over my conclusion? is it a good way to end the whole paper?
On the whole, instead of contributing to the prevalence of prejudice, we should try to be the stopping force. If prejudice becomes widespread in a community, it will more than likely contribute to the destruction of that community. We should start with the young children, because they are the ones who can be taught not to be prejudiced. It would be harder to teach an adult to change their ways. In conclusion, prejudice can come from many many sources, whether it is from our upbringing or the media.
On the whole, (WHY QUALIFY BY SAYING "On the whole"?)instead of contributing to the prevalence of prejudice, we should try to be the stopping force. If prejudice becomes widespread in a community, it will more than likely contribute to the destruction of that community. We should start with the young children, because they are the ones who can be ("MORE EASILY") taught not to be prejudiced. It would be harder to teach an adult to change their ways. (YOU HAVE A SINGULAR NOUN WITH A PLURAL PRONOUN.) In conclusion, prejudice can come from many many sources, whether it is from our upbringing or the media.
It is hard to tell if you are discussing causes of prejudice, dealing with prejudice or both. Except for the last sentence, the paragraph discusses — in very general terms — dealing with prejudice. Then you switch to sources in the last sentence.
Here are some other sources that would give more specific information. You don't necessarily need to include them in your paper, but they might provide interesting information.
http://www.members.cox.net/dagershaw/lol/PrejudiceCauseSolution.html
http://www.members.cox.net/dagershaw/lol/Prejudice.html
http://www.members.cox.net/dagershaw/lol/PrejudiceReduce.html
http://www.members.cox.net/dagershaw/lol/PrejudiceUsThem.html
http://www.members.cox.net/dagershaw/lol/PrejudiceChanges.html
I hope this helps a little more. Thanks for asking.
what part did Scout play in preventing the lynching of Tom Robinson?
it's really hard to read all this info as it's all too much and over-powering
It seems that the text you provided is an essay discussing the theme of prejudice in Harper Lee's novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird." The essay explores the sources and effects of prejudice and suggests ways to overcome it. Prejudice is defined as a negative feeling of contempt towards people who are different from oneself, shaped by preconceived ideas and convictions.
The essay points out that one of the main causes of prejudice is our upbringing. Children often learn prejudices from their parents, who pass down their attitudes and beliefs about others. The text emphasizes that parents play a significant role in shaping their children's views and interactions with others.
Feelings of superiority are also identified as a source of prejudice. People may feel superior to others based on their economic status or beliefs, leading to prejudice against those who are perceived as less fortunate.
The media is mentioned as another source that can encourage prejudice. The essay argues that the media can sensationalize and exaggerate certain issues, perpetuating stereotypes and prejudices.
The effects of prejudice are highlighted, including violence and discrimination against marginalized groups. The text mentions specific cases of violence and the impact of prejudice on relationships and self-esteem.
Finally, the essay suggests steps to overcome prejudice. The first step is acknowledging its existence rather than ignoring it. The second step is working together as a community to address and eliminate prejudice, with a focus on educating children.
In conclusion, the essay argues that instead of contributing to the prevalence of prejudice, we should strive to be a force that stops it. Prejudice can lead to the destruction of communities, and it is important to actively work towards overcoming it.